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Topaz Adjust 5 Review

Topaz Adjust 5

I just downloaded and installed the latest version of Topaz Adjust the other day and I thought I’d take a moment to share my thoughts with you. I use Topaz Adjust in my workflow about 40% – 50% of the time for everything from adding detail & texture in an image to creating unique effects.

The biggest inconvenience I had before update of Adjust 5 was that the overall effects of the filters were usually a bit too strong to be used by themselves. I therefore would copy the before image into Photoshop and use a layer mask to mask in the desired effect. I am so used to using layer masks in Photoshop that this doesn’t bother me, but it could create some issues if you do not use Photoshop in your workflow.

The folks over at Topaz Labs did a great job adding in plenty of new features to Adjust 5 which make adding subtle or local adjustments to your images a piece of cake!

Topaz Adjust works as a plug-in for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture & iPhoto. Simply select the desired image in your preferred program and launch the program. You’ll notice a categorized list of presets on the left – simply play around with the different ones until you find one that looks good for your image.

Once you’ve selected one of the presets from the left, you can go to the “Finishing Touches” bar on the right and adjust the overall transparency of the effect. You can also use the “Global Adjustment” tab to fine tune the effect to your liking.

One of the best additions to Adjust 5 is the ability to brush out the effect in places that you don’t want it. Use the “Local Adjustments” tab to do this as well as Dodge, Burn and Smooth the image locally.